Y’all, if you’re getting frustrated you’re not seeing the content you want to like news or intel you need on Mastodon, you really need to shift your thinking from algorithmic social media. Follower counts don’t matter much here. Likes do not matter to post reach. Without your interaction, you will just see a live FIFO firehose. Some quick fixes:

Hashtag your posts liberally and consistently, and follow key hashtags of interest to you. Hashtags matter a ton here to being seen.

Follow and also alert on accounts you always want to see content from.

Consider using the built in RSS feature for your feeds and for specific hashtags.

Consider switching to the more advanced UI in your preferences, so you can watch multiple filtered and unfiltered feeds. Or a different mobile app.

Use Fedifinder to follow all the accounts you followed on Twitter, and sync up your follow and block lists.

Avail yourself of the multiple public lists of hundreds of journalist accounts on Mastodon.

#mastodontips

@hacks4pancakes I feel dumb but how do I follow a hashtag?

@Fuzzbizz Hello!

I’m using the web interface and when clicking on a hashtag, an icon appears on the top right similar to the “follow” for people.

Hope this helps.

@h3rb1 @Fuzzbizz that interface to follow a hashtag does not appear in the app

@JackalLantern Hello, I didn’t mean to add confusion.

I mentioned “Web interface” which is visiting the site on a browser (or mobile browser) not a traditional “app”.

The instance needs to be on 4.0 version as well, for the hash tag follow feature to appear.